In a rare show of bipartisanship, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised her successor, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., commending him for meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday.
"Today's meeting between President Tsai of Taiwan and Speaker McCarthy is to be commended for its leadership, its bipartisan participation, and its distinguished and historic venue," Pelosi said in a statement.
The Hill reported that McCarthy hosted the meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library with more than a dozen fellow lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.
According to the report, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., warned the lawmakers not to meet with Tsai, calling the get-together "serious political provocations."
"I felt our meeting today provided a greater peace and stability for the world. America's support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering, and bipartisan," The Hill reported McCarthy saying after the event, adding, "There's no need for retaliation."
The report said McCarthy is the most senior U.S. official to meet with Tsai on U.S. soil, and the second consecutive speaker to meet with the Taiwanese president after Pelosi made a swing through Taiwan in August while she was still the speaker, getting an angry reaction from China.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., met with Tsai in New York City last week.
"We had a very productive conversation about the mutual security and economic interests between America and Taiwan," The Hill reported Jeffries saying in a statement Wednesday. "We also discussed our shared commitment to democracy and freedom. I wish President Tsai a safe return as she transits through California and travels back to Taiwan."
Prior to Pelosi's visit, the U.S. State Department put out a statement in May clarifying the relationship between Taiwan and the U.S.
"The United States approach to Taiwan has remained consistent across decades and administrations," the statement read. "The United States has a longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means. We continue to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States makes available defense articles and services as necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability — and maintains our capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of Taiwan."